I’ve written before about making great decisions, and shared some thoughts on the Amazon mentality of “one-way door” and “two-way door” decision making. It’s important to recognize and remember the importance of actually making decisions.

There’s a not-uncommon problem in meetings — which I think comes from a good place, even though ugh it’s awful — where you encounter a slow, overwrought exchange where no one wants to make the decision. You’ve heard some version of these exchanges:

“We could go with A or B. I could argue for either one. Does anyone have an opinion?”

“I don’t know. I like B, but I also like A. You know?”

Oh, how these make my blood boil. It’s important for someone — and how I urge you to let that someone be you — to say “Let’s do A.”

There’s an increasingly-debunked philosophy about dogs and dog training that emphasizes the idea that your dog is looking for the alpha, the pack leader, and that if no one takes that mantle, the dog will. Even if the dog theory was wrong, it’s absolutely true that all of us crave progress. Hemming and hawing and prevaricating wastes time and energy. It doesn’t move us forward at all. It saps motivation and focus. It prevents better use of the time and people gathered.

If it’s not clear, I hate it.

We need decisions. If we’re down to a coin flip, flip the damn coin. If we’re down to a die roll, roll the die. Essentially, if we’re at a point where a decision can be made and there’s no clearly best decision, it’s an absolute waste of everyone’s time to keep the debate — or the mumbly-mouthed anti-debate of indecisive verbal shrugging — going. Make a call.

Endlessly debating decisions when there’s no new information and no wrong answer… that just blocks you from devoting attention to those topics where deeper analysis and thought can actually provide benefit. So the smart move, and the one best benefits you, the team, and the company — is quickly making a call when there’s no plus side to continuing the discussion.